Why Foot Locker's Shares Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of retail shoe slinger Foot Locker (NYS: FL) were looking fleet of feet today as they gained as much as 14% in intraday trading after the company reported first-quarter results.

So what: For the quarter that ended in April, Foot Locker managed some pretty nice-looking numbers. Revenue was up 8.7% year over year to $1.6 billion on a strong 9.7% jump in same-store sales. On the bottom line, the $0.83 in per-share profit was a 38% increase from 2011 and easily above the $0.74 that Wall Street analysts had estimated.

Now what: Foot Locker may not have the cachet of a certain social network that went public today, but investors may want to keep an eye on this company. A lot appears to be going right here as the company makes itself more efficient at home while growing overseas. Margins are increasing and shares are trading at reasonable 14 times expected fiscal-year earnings.

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